Statement

When I was young, I listened more than I spoke. It wasn’t because of training or culture; I think it was the television. Early in my life, that piece of technology was a teacher and mentor and the sounds and visuals from it satisfied a need for connection. In spite of the TV’s important role, I was only an observer of what was happening in front of me. I felt the need to interact with it and be part of it in some way. From the moment my brother and I peeled the red and green wrapping paper from an ATARI game system, everything changed. At that point, I took charge of the TV, using the controller to elicit the desired responses. From shooting space aliens to a quest for a golden chalice, I had a new way to talk to the TV.

At 13, I began to play drums and percussion and started to find a new language for communication. In high school, I started to compose music and play drums in a rock band. I saw music in a new way: I could compose music for conventional instruments and non-conventional
objects that made sounds like car brake drums, bits of metal and parts of the human body. I never limited myself to a specific sonoral palette, but rather remained open to hearing new things that could be used to make music.

Later, I found new technologies that allowed me to create and respond to visuals and sound in real-time so I could compose a piece and also experience it. The first was MAX/MSP and a video component called NATO. These two pieces of software allowed me to express my compositional ideas through video and sound as if they were physical instruments. The software became a conduit for my thoughts, and every work I produced used it in some way. When I discovered the software Jitter, I improved my work enormously with live-processed 3-dimensional modeling, animation, and net based connections to other performers. Sometimes one needs to be wary of how the technology restricts the development of an artistic work, but I feel that MAX/MSP/Jitter has allowed me to fully express my ideas openly without confining prescription from the software.

Another part my growth as an artist was making works that included interaction between people and objects.  By making works that the audience could take on a role in the work, I was no longer the sole performer of my pieces; the audience became a co-performer, interacting with the pieces and with me. For those moments, we all existed within a system I created, the stage in the theater and the interest of the audience members. We each wanted something from one another until the piece finished.

Throughout my work, interactivity continuously becomes part my process even though I have changed media or technologies.  The root of the work remains either between a person and the computer or between two or more people this will develop into future pieces, interactive systems and game environments.

Looking at the trajectory that I took to where I am now, when I was young and watching TV, I wanted to be a part of it. Now when I make new works I want the audience to be part of it.